Informant's Role Central In Terrorism Case

June 12, 2002|By Tanya Weinberg and Jeff Shields Staff Writers

Boastful about a mythical background as a U.S. Marine, Gilbert became known around Darul Uloom as a gun-toting security expert with his own company, Risk Management International. The institute's principal and religious leader, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, said he even asked Gilbert for a price quote on providing security at the Pines Boulevard mosque and school.

The two men say they met at an Army officer's Islamic wedding, performed by Shafayat Mohamed several years ago. Gilbert followed up after a year, telling Mohamed he had decided to convert to Islam from Christianity. He took the Islamic name Sayif Ullah, which translates as "Sword of Allah," and became a mosque regular.

In late 2000, Gilbert gave an impassioned speech there about the Palestinian struggle. He said Mandhai soon approached him asking for weapons and tactical training.

"That was truly the night that launched me into the terrorist umbrella of South Florida," Gilbert said.

While Gilbert single-mindedly pursued Mandhai as his ticket to infiltrating a terrorist cell, the FBI apparently was less convinced. A federal source familiar with the case said Gilbert was let go in January 2001 because he revealed his identity as a government operative to non-FBI sources.

Gilbert said he was fired after he complained to Department of Defense officials about FBI supervisors. He said they declined his request for back-up on a trip to Melbourne, where he said Mandhai had invited him to meet with "brothers from all over Florida."

Gilbert said he was alarmed because Mandhai asked him to bring his weapons and military equipment to Melbourne, within an hour of Cape Canaveral.

A federal law enforcement source confirmed that Gilbert told of this scheduled meeting, but said no one verified whether the meeting took place or what it meant.

Gilbert supplied a name of a former professor at the American Military University, where he took online classes a decade after dropping out of the University of Miami as a reference who could confirm his concerns.

The professor, a Department of Defense employee who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gilbert was an unpredictable character who in their frequent phone conversations claimed a celebrated military background, but claimed no such past in his application.

Credibility in question

The professor added that checking Gilbert's stories with FBI contacts bolstered the professor's assessment of him as trying to gain power with inaccurate depictions of his forays into counter-terrorism.

Gilbert said he told the professor that he was using a cover as a former military man, but never tried to deceive. He also says the FBI regarded him as "dangerous," but that they need someone like him "to go into the mosques and do this kind of work."

A reserve Hialeah police lieutenant who owns a Hollywood police supply shop where Gilbert hung out also questioned Gilbert's credibility.

"He wants respect, and he wants to be noticed," said Walter Philbrick, president of International Protective Services.

Gilbert remains convinced the FBI missed the opportunity he offered them to learn more about a possible terrorist network in South Florida, and says they fired him because he exposed their apathy.

Mandhai was but a follower, Gilbert says, not a leader. He acknowledged helping Mandhai draw up a list of weapons and "Skills Necessary for Jihad," and FBI agent Carpinteri confirmed this in testimony.

"[Mandhai] needs someone like me to lead him by the nose to show him what to do," Gilbert said. "I needed him to get me in the network."

Leonard Fenn, who was appointed to defend Mandhai last week and is still researching the case, said it appeared Gilbert played a younger Mandhai "like a fiddle." Fenn said informants allowed too much latitude can get carried away.

"We always scrutinize them as close as we can, because unless they're kept on a short leash, they break the rules," Fenn said.

Gilbert is critical of Mohammad, the informant the FBI inserted as they were telling him to stay away.

"Whoever trained him didn't do a very good job," said Gilbert, who says he met once with Mandhai and Mohammad together.

For now, Gilbert is pursuing a book deal and hoping the Atkins diet will help him strip off the 90 pounds he gained after the FBI's rejection sent him into a depression. After Sept. 11, Gilbert wished to "reinfiltrate" South Florida mosques, but says the FBI ignored his phone messages.

"I've had to sit back and watch this war on terrorism," he said. "I wanted so very badly to be in it, and it was very, very hard for me."

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7923.